All language subtitles for The Passengers English

(dramatic music)

(dramatic music) (people chattering)

- [Man] We live in Ethiopia here,

but we don't feel like it's our home here.

(dramatic music)

- Always I dream about Israel.

- We Ethiopian Jews, we are Jewish as the Jewish

in the rest of the world.

So why we cannot go to Israel?

(dramatic music)

This place is temporary for us.

We are just living as guests or as a passenger.

(dramatic music)

(people chatting in foreign language)

We Ethiopian Jews are waiting for aliyah.

That is our life.

(people chatting in foreign language)

- [Demoz] We hope tomorrow we'll go to Israel

to live with our relatives.

(speaking in foreign language)

(people chattering)

- [Gezi] Demoz and me, we are not just friends.

We are brothers.

We grew up together here.

We have the same story.

(dramatic music)

- [Demoz] We met in the synagogue.

We were participating in this drama group.

We were best friends after that.

(dramatic music)

(speaking in foreign language)

And one day we'll go to Israel together.

(audience applauding) (audience cheering)

(speaking in foreign language)

(audience cheering)

(speaking in foreign language)

(thunder rumbles)

(rain spattering)

- We need to go to Israel.

It doesn't mean, we want.

I mean, we need to go to Israel.

(dramatic music)

(people chattering)

(speaking in foreign language)

- We keep Sabbath, we keep kosher,

and we celebrate Jewish holidays.

(dramatic music)

(people chattering)

- [Gashaw] Most of this community have parents,

sons, daughters in Israel.

We need to be there with them, with our family,

to reach the holy land of our ancestors.

- The Jews all over the world,

they can get the visa easily.

I mean, I don't have an idea why we cannot.

(dramatic music)

- When the founders of the State of Israel sat down

and devised their immigration laws,

one of the things they came up with was the Law of Return.

According to the Law of Return,

anybody who is one quarter Jewish,

that is, who has a Jewish grandparent,

is eligible to become a citizen of the State of Israel.

And it's no accident that they chose the quarter Jew.

That was the same quality by which

the Nazis determined that a Jew was a Jew

and therefore subject to annihilation and extermination.

(dramatic music)

(people chattering)

Ethiopian Jews were long regarded

as a lower caste in Ethiopian society.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries,

a group of Ethiopian Jews

decided to convert to Christianity

to escape economic pressure,

social pressures, political pressures.

They were known in Ethiopia

as the (speaking in foreign language)

or person from a foreign land.

- I don't like the word Falash Mura.

But it is our name.

Some generations converted to Christianity.

But we have Jewish blood.

- [Uriel] Even though they stopped practicing Judaism,

Ethiopian non-Jews continued to ostracize them

and to refuse to marry them.

Many of these Falash Mura decided

they wanted to return to Judaism

and embraced Judaism and moved to Israel.

Ethiopians began coming to Israel in the early '80s.

(dramatic music)

In 1991, the Israeli government actually believed

that it was bringing the last plane load

of the Ethiopian Jewish community.

(dramatic music)

What happens is the Falash Mura quickly left their villages

and rushed to Addis Ababa in Gondar.

- [Gezi] We sold everything in the countryside.

- [Demoz] When we came to Gondar,

we were thinking we'd enter Israel quickly.

(dramatic music)

- It became apparent that there were thousands more.

And then nothing, nothing happened.

This is Israel, it's a government, politics.

People drag their feet.

- Because of that, we are living here in Gondar

and Addis, but our relatives are there.

(dramatic music)

(speaking in foreign language)

- My community is very worried because of many problems.

We can't celebrate our holidays like Christians,

as the Muslims here.

Here have no peace, have no food, and have no property.

In the countryside, our parents,

they didn't get educational opportunities

and they were farmers.

Because of that, they don't have work or jobs in the city.

Our livelihood here is just the money

that comes from our relatives in Israel.

(dramatic music)

(speaking in foreign language)

- So an outcome is about

substantive changes that take place.

While we will be very excited to hear your impact

or your goal, we're going to be very interested

in what outcome it's going to have to show.

So you start thinking about this.

What really is it you're trying to accomplish?

I teach organizing, I teach advocacy.

I teach how public service organizations can do good.

(dramatic music)

In 2013, my wife Shira,

and I went to Ethiopia to see

the final aliyah of the Ethiopian Jewish community.

We walked into this Jewish compound

and it's almost impossible to describe.

You walk in and you go, this is my people.

I turned to the young man

to the right of me and said in Hebrew.

So when are you going?

And he looked down and he said,

(speaking in foreign language),

I'm not on the list.

And that was Demoz.

I didn't understand,

I turned to the other side asked the same question,

got the same answer.

We came home, deeply distraught.

We began asking questions and that began our campaign.

(dramatic music)

We determined we're going to bring Ethiopian's

to the United States and have them speak in their own voice.

If major Jewish leaders hear this story

they're bound to respond positively

and hopefully engage in the campaign to bring them home.

(cat meows)

(speaking in foreign language)

- My father, he left because you don't want to go to Israel.

And they're divorced now.

(people chattering)

We didn't talk for a long time.

My father, if he sees, if he heard about this journey even,

I think he will not be happy.

(dramatic music)

(speaking in foreign language)

(dramatic music)

(speaking in foreign language)

(dramatic music)

(speaking in foreign language)

- [Demoz] The responsibility, it makes us feel

pressure to speak with many people there.

(speaking in foreign language)

(birds chirping)

(speaking in foreign language)

- Law of return doesn't say you have

to be a jew to make aliyah and come to Israel.

It says anyone who is born to Jewish grandparents,

whether they themselves are Jewish or not,

is eligible to come and make aliyah.

These people, without a shadow of a doubt,

do not meet the parameters of the law of return,

they are not people who can show that

they were born to Jewish grandparents.

- What do you do when two young men come from Africa,

having never been in the United States

and never really spoken in a public setting?

So our first plan was to go to congregation,

(speaking in foreign language), where Shira's the rabbi.

Starting them off easy.

- We are glad to see with you.

I was born in a small village called Chilga.

When I was 11 years old,

I came to Gondar to await the aliyah.

- Our life in Gondar Ethiopia is not as you think.

It is not easy for us.

It is so difficult for Jews to be there.

They said always, you are not Jewish enough,

I don't know why we are not Jewish enough.

- We come to ask one thing that we didn't get an answer to.

When we go to Israel?

Thank you so much.

(dramatic music)

- [David] This is an advocacy campaign.

We're going to travel the country to try to connect

with as many people as possible to gather support.

(dramatic music)

- So first tell me, where do you live in Israel?

- Where in Israel do you live?

- No, we live in Ethiopia.

- Oh, you're still in Ethiopia.

- Yeah, that's why we--

(dramatic music)

(speaking in foreign language) (dramatic music)

- There is discrimination there,

especially for our community.

(speaking in foreign language)

We have different skin color, but we have the same blood.

- How is it possible that we would

allow families to be torn apart this way?

Start asking Israel to complete

what it itself committed to do.

We're not asking for a change in Israel policy,

but rather fulfillment of Israel policy.

(dramatic music)

- If it's a monetary issue, then why don't you just

mobilize the Jewish community to raise money?

And then the government has no excuse

for saying that they can't take them in.

- What can we do in terms of advocacy

and fundraising and where would money go?

- Is there like a realistic amount of money that

you know, we can really figure out how to tackle?

- We're not raising, this is not a campaign to raise money.

This is really an advocacy campaign that stands on its own.

- And BB made this a financial thing,

which is pure, unadulterated bullshit.

To say that we don't have the finance to

take those that are really committed

and really are ready and prepared to go home to Israel.

(people chattering)

(dramatic music)

- [David] American Jews understand our obligation,

an obligation of history, an obligation of the story

of the creation of the state of Israel.

What we do best is raise money.

And you're not asking people to raise money.

Israel has the funds, Israel has the resources.

You're asking them to raise the voices

to provide an impetus

and an action to get Israel to change.

(dramatic music)

When operation Moses, American Jews helped thousands

of Ethiopian Jews

escape persecution and immigrate to Israel.

(dramatic music)

In 1991, Jewish leaders met to raise money

for operation Solomon to bring 15,000 Ethiopian Jews

to Israel over the course of just 36 hours.

(dramatic music)

It's indicative of just how much has changed over the years

in the relationship between Israel and American Jews

that we can't bring this last 9,000

at least for the more progressive Jewish community.

It's strange now, and Israel increasingly conservative,

isn't really listening.

- There's an Israel, which is progressive

and innovative, and daring, and open, and courageous.

And there's an Israel, which is moving toward radicalization

and fundamentalism, sort of the Iranization of Israel.

And they really are at war within

each other at Israel's core.

- What is the basis for your thinking

that the American Jewish community

on this issue will offer sufficient pressure

to have Israel change its position?

- When advocates for these Ethiopians

go around North America

to try to drum up support.

They're getting turned away

by groups that may never have turned them away before,

or people who may say I'd like to help you but I can't.

- We do not advocate,

we're a non-political organization,

(speaking in foreign language).

- The Federation doesn't ever take a political position.

- I mean, I had to push to even

allow this meeting to happen.

- [Man] So it's more of an uphill battle now.

(dramatic music)

(speaking in foreign language)

- Okay, we'll say that we need people, journalists,

and we told our stories.

And we hope to get a solution for us.

- No, I think I don't agree with Demoz.

When we come back to Ethiopia

we have to get some actions to show them.

- But that's up to Israel,

it's not up to the people that you're meeting here.

- Yeah but through here maybe in Israel,

will happen, something.

- [David] And you'll tell them what?

- They expect a big thing here.

I mean, they never give up hope.

David say it's not a matter of money,

it's a matter of interest in bringing Ethiopian Jews.

He's right, but I agree with the guy who said

just collect the money, and things will be easier.

If people support financially,

maybe the Israeli government will allow it.

Will give permission.

(speaking in foreign language) (dramatic music)

- So this is where I grew up.

Even if when I was a kid,

this was all orchards and farms and dairies.

So it was very, very pastoral in rural.

Now it's just a suburban blight.

I grew up in the most Zionist of household.

If there was any faith that we had in our home,

and it wasn't a religious observance, it was love of Israel.

I went to Israel as a young teen

and lived on a youth aliyah village

with immigrants from all over the world.

It was honestly a transformative experience.

When I think about, about Ethiopian Jews

who desperately want to get to Israel,

my mother was in a program

in Germany to prepare you for aliyah.

And not only could she not do it

and had to flee for her life to England,

but most of her family was wiped out

including the family members that

were going to go with her to Palestine.

Remember the first time you landed in 1967,

when you went to Israel, how happy you were

to finally be in Israel.

- I was not just happy, I was exuberant.

- Yeah

You wanted to go in 1937, 1938.

- [Woman] Oh yes.

- You didn't get there until 67.

- But now they're bringing them over much faster.

Not faster?

- No.

Demoz and Gezi, the two Ethiopian guys?

They can't go to Israel, Israel's not bringing them.

Hard to imagine, right?

This is a similar story for me,

the story of longing to to go home, the story of aliyah.

That's my story too.

- I think one of the points that I'd like to pick up on

is how you feel about all of this?

I'm just wondering how you view your future

when there seems to be one obstacle

after another being put in front of you.

(speaking in foreign language)

- [David] I just want you to know the insanity of this,

that they are speaking to you in fluent--

- Hebrew.

- Hebrew with kippahs on, arguing about whether

or not they're should go to Israel or not.

- So let me ask you something.

It seems that the Israeli government

is using the excuse that it doesn't have the money,

what role do you think race plays in this problem?

(speaking in foreign language)

- Here is comments and likes from my friends.

Many of our friends say just, we stand with you,

behind you, and don't be afraid, keep it up, going.

They make us strong and they make us speak

more, and more about the community.

(speaking in foreign language)

- Israel has not done the greatest job

in integrating the Ethiopians into Israeli society.

(speaking in foreign language)

(people yelling) (dramatic music)

(speaking in foreign language)

(dramatic music)

- When I wrote a column.

I tried to talk about these Jews who are left behind

and how important it is for the government

to fulfill its promise

and how important it is for

the American Jewish community not to forget them.

It just strikes me as being problematic

that you would make a promise to bring a certain number,

and then not fulfill that promise.

- I wasn't really sure where the article was going to go,

and when it came out that headline

Jane Eisner, No Jew Let Behind, Unless You're In Ethiopia.

- As with all headlines,

it was a simplification of my argument.

It got a lot of traffic.

I felt like there were people who really responded

and hadn't realized that this issue was still with us.

(dramatic music)

- [David] Now, perhaps since

you've gotten more media coverage,

I think people are taking this very seriously.

I think that the tide is shifting here.

(audience applauding) (dramatic music)

(dramatic music)

- [Interviewer] Who are you going to see?

- Now?

- [Interviewer] Yeah.

- I'm going, I'm going to see Obama.

- White house.

- Maybe let's ask him what he knows about Ethiopian Jewish.

(speaking in foreign language)

- Our organization, I think I would love

to try and figure out a way to do something.

(speaking in foreign language)

- [Gezi] They are are very interested

to hear about our story

and it seems like many people support us.

- At first they were tentative,

they spoke but it wasn't really dramatic.

And then you just saw the deepening,

the understanding, the voice they need.

(speaking in foreign language)

- Somebody called them badass,

like they know how to go out there and connect to people.

- Why we ask permission?

It is our right to be there.

(dramatic music)

(singing in foreign language)

(dramatic music)

- [David] He wants to sing (speaking in foreign language).

- (speaking in foreign language)?

(singing in foreign language)

(speaking in foreign language)

- C, G, E, and C.

F, F, F, C, yeah, next C, G, and C.

There's a beautiful poem by rabbi Larry Cushner.

That talks about how we all are puzzles.

And there are pieces of our puzzle

that somebody else holds.

(banjo strumming)

They don't even necessarily know it,

but they hold that piece of the puzzle.

And in the mysterious way the world is,

if you're lucky enough,

you'll connect with that person

and that piece of your puzzle will.

If you're lucky enough,

that piece of puzzle you'll get to experience in your life.

And you may have a piece

of that person's puzzle that you can share.

That's really what this feels like.

I feel blessed to have been to Ethiopia

at a particular moment and meet, meet Demoz at that moment.

And I fell in love with him

pretty quickly and Gezi the same.

It was, it's easy to love these guys.

I'm so grateful that I got the chance to be with them.

They feel like they're my boys.

They should always feel that way.

(speaking in foreign language)

(people yelling)

(speaking in foreign language)

- Hello.

(phone beeping)

(dramatic music)

(speaking in foreign language)

(dramatic music)

(speaking in foreign language)

- [David] It's so hard to know

if our efforts are really paying off.

Advocacy campaigns are always tricky,

and it makes it even more complicated for the guys.

I could feel this campaign slowly dropping lower and lower

in the sights of our leaders

on the agenda of Israel and the Jewish people.

- [Woman] Look at the number of issues

now dividing Israeli's and Americans.

You know, I think it's a very challenging task.

- What I'm getting here is the exhaustion of American Jews.

I feel like were fighting on so many fronts,

that said, I don't wanna hear you talk this way.

(dramatic music)

(speaking in foreign language)

- I think what would be helpful for me is really

to concretize what, what you're asking of the federations.

What other federations, specific federations, and JFNA.

What, because we've we want to work together.

(dramatic music)

(speaking in foreign language)

- It's hard for you guys because you feel so much pressure.

You've got to deliver, you've got to deliver,

you've got to deliver, and so I really, I feel for you,

but I really, really, really think you couldn't do,

you couldn't be doing more than you're doing,

nobody can speak as powerfully as the two of you

are speaking, I really believe that.

(dramatic music)

I can't imagine what it must be like

to be too Jewish to be an Ethiopian,

to be two plaque, to be a Jew.

To be limbo, in purgatory.

(dramatic music)

- Maybe in this process

we didn't close as much as we needed?

I mean, we didn't communicate a lot,

we didn't communicate as much as possible.

(speaking in foreign language)

- That's good to be starting the aliyah, of the journey.

But for this we've heard many kinds of decisions.

Next month it will be starting,

this number, this number, like this.

It takes money, it takes time, four or five years.

People wait a long time, and they don't know who goes first.

- We heard many decisions before, but it doesn't help.

- It's all about being centered in your head, in your body,

and the piece of clay you're working with.

When you do ceramics, every step of the way,

you can go wrong.

You can't be a ceramicist if failure terrifies you.

Because in ceramics you fail a lot.

Even when you think you've done everything right.

(speaking in foreign language)

(dramatic music)

(speaking in foreign language)

- I suppose there was a fantasy.

The fantasy was that we bring Demoz and Gezi

to the United States and they would speak

and people would stand up and cheer

and people would be part of the cause.

And the council, general,

and the ambassador would realize this

and communicate with the prime minister

to move it up on the agenda.

I guess it was a fantasy to believe that two months later,

Israel would say, that's it, we're bringing everybody home.

But you know, advocacy campaigns often are built on fantasy,

on the dream that change can happen,

and that it's gonna happen rapidly.

They're still believers, after all this,

they really believe and that it has to happen soon

because they need to come home.

(people chattering)

(speaking in foreign language)

(dramatic music)

- Just would be better if together

we receive the permission to go to Israel.

Together, as our dreams.

But hopefully, he will also be included

on the list to go at a different time.

(dramatic music)

But, what shall, what shall I do?

(dramatic music)

(speaking in foreign language)

(people chattering) (dramatic music)

(speaking in foreign language) (dramatic music)

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